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A 9-Step Communications Plan for CIOs

To establish a holistic communications program, CIOs can start by considering their biggest priorities, their critical stakeholders, and the way messages are delivered, among other issues.

CIOs, especially those new to the position, can benefit from creating and executing a disciplined communications program that aligns with their organization’s core objectives. Formulating a strategic communications plan includes these activities:

1. Establish IT priorities. By first defining a set of core priorities that align with the IT organization’s mission,¹ CIOs can position themselves to better communicate the value IT can deliver, and to respond to unexpected issues that arise. These priorities might relate to procuring talent, partnering with business leaders, optimizing IT operations, or other areas.

2. Define critical audiences. To create a communications strategy for a specific priority, first define the audiences you want to influence. To whom do you need to communicate? From whom do you need input? Audiences may include your direct reports, your entire IT organization, the executive committee, and the rest of the company.

3. Define audience-specific objectives for each priority. With each audience, a CIO is likely to have different intents and goals for communicating IT’s value to the business. For example, with direct reports, a goal may be helping these individuals take more responsibility for decision-making and delivery of insights to stakeholders. With the CEO and peer executives, a goal may be demonstrating progress on this objective.

4. Define critical messages. A CIO will likely need to tailor different messages to staff and business peers at different intervals. With the IT team, the CIO may want to communicate revised expectations. Next, it may be necessary to communicate to this group examples of behaviors and actions that create the value the IT organization wants to demonstrate to the business; it can be helpful to establish a scorecard that lets the IT team track progress against objectives. With peers and the CEO, meanwhile, the CIO may want to communicate timelines for forthcoming actions, such as acquiring needed talent to deliver on priorities, and also report tangible ways IT has added insight to the business.

5. Package your messages. Once key messages to stakeholders have been defined, a CIO can next consider how to best package them. Will the messages be communicated as stories?² In a factual report or data dashboard? Through direct requests and conversations? In infographics, videos, and other formats? CIOs should also assess the language and cultural fit of the selected examples and stories. If a company has significant operations in countries in which a different language is used, it can be helpful to ask a local manager to either translate or communicate on the CIO’s behalf, and to ensure the messages and stories are culturally appropriate

6. Choose who will deliver the messages. CIOs do not have to deliver all of their core messages themselves. Sometimes, it is more effective if others step in, such as members of the leadership team or staff who can share their experiences in a town hall. By including others in communications, CIOs can demonstrate critical team behaviors and show visible commitment from team and peer leaders. Peer stories may also be more powerful than top-down messages in their impact.

7. Select channels. Executives today have numerous channels for communication internally and externally. Email and work networking systems, combined with video, teleconferencing, and webcasting, provide a plethora of electronic options with wide reach. These can also be mixed with town halls and other meeting formats to combine in-person conversations and broad online communications. CIOs can select particular communications channels depending on the nature of the messages, the importance and number of stakeholders, and their geographic dispersion.

8. Define frequency. For each priority, audience, message, and channel, define the frequency with which you will communicate. For example, as CIO, you may host a town hall meeting once or twice a year to discuss the state of IT. For other communications, a CIO might set up in-person meetings to ensure alignment with objectives and priorities.

9. Seek feedback and evaluate effectiveness. To assess whether your communications are being received and understood, solicit feedback from your various audiences. This feedback can come from direct conversations with a sampling of constituents or through online surveys with larger groups. Use all feedback to shape improvements to the communications program.

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An authentic and credible communications program can help CIOs persuade critical stakeholders of their intentions and inform the organization at large of IT successes. This program, in turn, can help CIOs efficiently achieve their organizational objectives.

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Deloitte Insights for CIOs couples broad business insights with deep technical knowledge to help executives drive business and technology strategy, support business transformation, and enhance growth and productivity. Through fact-based research, technology perspectives and analyses, case studies and more, Deloitte Insights for CIOs informs the essential conversations in global, technology-led organizations. Learn more